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Eagles land on windmill in museum

By Jenni Grubbs

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
08/27/2017 02:34:36 PM MDT

This stuffed golden eagle is a recent addition to the windmill exhibit in Fort Morgan Museum's East Gallery. It and another one on the other side had been owned by the Junior Conservation Club, which disbanded in the 1970s, and previously were displayed in Fort Morgan High School years ago and in Fort Morgan Museum's Lower Level Gallery in fall 2015. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

Two stuffed golden eagles and their nest are recent additions to the windmill exhibit in Fort Morgan Museum's East Gallery. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

Things are getting a little wilder at Fort Morgan Museum.

The windmill exhibit in the East Gallery now has two taxidermied golden eagles perched over a nest built on it.

"I'm very excited about the eagle's nest and the two eagles that now are on display," Museum Curator Brian Mack told the Fort Morgan Heritage Foundation Board of Directors on Thursday afternoon.

Those eagles previously were displayed in Fort Morgan High School, as they were owned by the Junior Conservation Club prior to its dissolution in the 1970s.

The first of its kind in the nation, Fort Morgan's Junior Conservation Club was started in 1946 by science teacher Herb Hockstrasser. After his retirement in 1970, the club fell by the wayside, according to research by museum volunteers.

One of the eagles previously was included with a special exhibit of Howard Rollin paintings in the museum's Lower Level Gallery in fall 2015.

But being able to place the eagles as part of the permanent windmill exhibit took some doing, the curator said.

"We had to get permission from the (Colorado) Department of Parks and Wildlife," Mack said, adding that the city attorney's office had handled the legal paperwork for that.

Heritage Foundation Board member Bill Baker had been an advocate for getting the eagles placed on the windmill, and he tracked down the cottonwood roots that he said were appropriate for creating the eagles' nest. He also had been the one who located the original historic windmill itself, got it donated to the city and moved it from a rural farm to the museum for the exhibit.

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"I think that'll really cap off that whole display," Baker said of the eagles and their nest.

And it was a labor of love for Baker.

"I made up my mind it was going to be done right," Baker said of his efforts on the exhibit.

He also plans on getting an audio recording made about the windmill and its history made and then adding that to the exhibit, as well. It likely would have a push button for playing it, like with other such audio components of the museum's exhibits.

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